PENDLE Council is calling on the county council to introduce 20mph speed limits on all residential streets in the borough in an attempt to cut accidents, congestion and pollution.

A motion by the ruling Liberal Democrat party is asking that all roads in Pendle, other than main roads, have a 20mph limit.

If the changes get the go-ahead, the borough will be the first in Lancashire to have all residential streets and roads through all villages with such low speed limits.

The council has decided to put forward the motion to ask Lanca-shire County Council, which is responsible for roads in the borough, after a similar scheme was implemented by Portsmouth City Council. The council is hoping that if approval is gained, that the new speed limits would be in place by summer.

Liberal Democrat Councillor Ann Kerrigan, who is moving the motion, said residents in Pendle have been calling for lowered speed limits for a number of years.

She said: ”People have ment-ioned to me that speed limits should be reduced for a number of years, we have brought this up at various committee meetings and now we have decided to put it all together and bring it to full council.

“The idea is to have most of the borough’s roads speed limit reduced to 20mph.

"There are a number of reasons for this, to make the roads safer for pedestrians and cyclists, reduce noise pollution and hopefully encourage more people to walk or cycle rather than drive.

““Road humps would be not part of the scheme, instead there would probably be new speed restrictions, as well as repeater signs as reminders.

“The idea is to get into people’s subconscious and effect the way that they drive on the roads.”

A County council spokesman said: ”We are looking into our policy on 20mph speed limits and whether we can or should amend it in any way.

“Currently any area considered for a 20mph limit should be self-enforcing, for example it should be engineered to reduce the speed limit, such as having speed bumps to bring the speed limit round."